Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Dickenss Legacy
Today, 200 years after his birth, Charles Dickens is acknowledged as the first, and arguably greatest, modern urban novelist. His writings form a giant atlas of the life of the metropolis. Dickens and London are indelibly bound together. Dickens tracks a changing society in an industrial age. Many aspects of his work are profoundly unsettling, especially his insistent descriptions of the terrible living conditions of the poor, whose sufferings were largely ignored. Dickenss ultimate aim was to reform and improve society. He attacked financial fraud, Government incompetence, red tape (a term that he invented) and inadequate education. Sadly, inequalities and poverty still exist in London, still blighting lives. Dickenss words still challenge us today:
I saw that not one miserable wretch breathed out his poisoned life in the deepest cellar of the most neglected town, but, from the surrounding atmosphere, some particles of his infection were borne away, charged with heavy retribution on the general guilt.
From A December Vision, Household Words, 1850
EXIT INTRO
ENTRANCE
A City of Imagination
Dickenss Victorian London book Over 200 archive photographs most of which have never been published before illustrate this mesmerising guide to Victorian London as seen through the eyes of Charles Dickens.
The book is available from the Museum shop or at www.museumoflondonshop.co.uk 25 RRP, available for the special price of 20 during the exhibition run. Dickens: Dark London app The Museum of London has launched a new iPhone and iPad app which takes users on a journey through the darker side of Dickenss London. Beautifully imagined by illustrator David Foldvari, this graphic novel follows Dickens on his night walks of London. Actor Mark Strong gives voice to Dickens as passages from his works provide vivid descriptions of the Victorian capital. Bonus material featuring illustrated excerpts of some of Dickenss most famous novels also bring the 19th century city to life. Drawn from a selection of his short stories, Dickens: Dark London will be published monthly throughout the exhibition. The first edition is available now free of charge from iTunes. Each subsequent edition will be available to download for 1.49.
Day after day, such travellers crept past, but always, as she thought, in one directionalways towards the town. Swallowed up in one phase or other of its immensity, towards which they seemed impelled by a desperate fascination, they never returned. Food for the hospitals, the churchyards, the prisons, the river, fever, madness, vice, and death,they passed on to the monster, roaring in the distance, and were lost.
Dombey and Son, Chapter 33
Dickens and London prints Prints of a selection of photographs, featured in the exhibition and the accompanying publication Dickenss Victorian London, can be purchased from our print-on-demand touch screen in the shop foyer and from www.museumoflondonprints.com
Date Scale Project No Issue Design Firm
FIRE EXIT
No
1. This drawing is not to be used for construction 2. Drawings not to be scaled 3. All dimensions to be checked on site 4. All construction and shop drawings must be submitted for comment/approval prior to commencement of any work. 5. This drawing is subject to copyright
06.07.2011 1.100 @ A3
PB 1011037 Dickens
For Tender
Date Revision
Project Title
A City of Imagination
Dickens was an insomniac and needed little sleep. He thought nothing of walking the streets of London all night long. Through such regular excursions, he developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of Londons geography. Dickens had an extraordinary visual memory. He described his mind as a sort of capitally prepared and highly sensitive [photographic] plate. The variety and complexity of the city fed his creativity. As he walked, he mapped out the intricate storylines of his novels. Just as his fictional characters made their way from one place to another, so he followed in their footsteps across the real city. Dickens also listened closely to sounds, especially overheard conversations. He was a master at distinguishing dialect, intonation and word pattern, a skill that made the voices of his characters ring true.
Highlights: Furnivals Inn watchmans box, Newgate prison door, Bleak House manuscript, accents and dialects audio interactive, stereoscopic viewers.